Tax Beef Lands Sheriff Country in Hot Water

November 18, 2023

In some states, sheriffs also collect taxes.

Today, voters in Washington Parish, Louisiana, will decide whether to give the boot to current Sheriff Randy “Country” Seal in favor of upstart Jason Smith.

Seal has been the sheriff of the rural county for three terms. In 2019, he switched from a Democrat to a Republican, and said this:

I don't like what's going on in Washington," Seal said. "Don't care about abortion and Democrats support that. They are against the Second Amendment and I support the Second Amendment, and I am for closed borders. I think we ought to have rules. If we don't have rules, we have chaos.

He’s in his 70s and, well, I’ll let the Times-Pic describe him:

Spend two minutes with Seal and it’s easy to see the political tradition he embodies. He speaks with a cane-syrup Southern twang. He’s fond of dressing in jeans and boots with a black sportscoat and a cowboy hat…he has been a fixture in the parish political firmament for decades. His “from the sticks” charm is evident not just in his drawl, but his nickname “Country.”

His endorsements include a number of Mississippi and Louisiana sheriffs as well as the former sheriff of New Orleans, Marlin Gusman.

Smith, a rancher, is no stranger to Seal. In 2019, Seal sued Smith for what he claimed was $40,000 in taxes and penalties because Smith wasn’t paying taxes on meat he sold direct-to-consumers.

Louisiana has a state law that exempts certain agricultural sales from taxes. This encourages direct-to-customer sales of things like beef, which helps ranchers stay solvent and (according to ranchers) provides better quality beef to consumers for competitive prices. (One rancher told a local reporter, “[T]he local grocery store sells a fatty hamburger meat that's already below his production costs.”) From watching Yellowstone, I too know that ranching is an expensive operation and cattle are a perishable product.

As sheriff, Seal is also the parish tax collector, and as part of that role, he argued that Smith Angus was ineligible for the exemption. Even the Louisiana Agricultural and Forestry Commissioner told Seal to stop. It’s confusing why Seal was so dead-set on these taxes.

Just kidding! When the sheriffs collect the taxes, they get to “skim off a small portion of each agency’s tax revenue before doling it out,” as The Advocate explains. This article is about the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s skimming practices – the money goes into an employee retirement fund, not the sheriff’s pocket – but I think it’s fair to assume Seal does something similar. (I have not confirmed this via public records, but it’s something for an enterprising person to do.)

Seal brought Smith to trial – according to Smith the sheriff refused to settle – in 2021 and lost.

Louisiana is one of the few states where sheriffs are still official tax collectors – they don’t collect personal income tax, but rather things like property tax, business tax, and hunting and fishing licenses. (Rural counties in a handful of states, including Texas and Arkansas, also have a similar system. The New Orleans sheriff does not collect taxes – there’s a separation collections official.)

These lawsuits seem extremely rare based on my quick searches. Interestingly, the only court decision that comes up involves the Washington Parish Sheriff, albeit not Sheriff Seal (The issue appeared to center around tax refunds.) Huh.

Smith decided to run for sheriff on a campaign of good governance. He has no law enforcement experience but served in the Marine Corps. He casts himself as an independent outsider who will dramatically change the department: “He will cut the department fat.” He also explains, unsurprisingly, that he will “protect all Louisiana farmers from improper government overreach.”